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Sometimes Mother Nature is like the Joker. That’s evident from the 2011 growing season. Hopefully your hybrid choice is like Batman. From trait options to staygreen to stalk strength to pest and disease resistance, hybrids can bring an arsenal of tools to combat most enemies. Corn & Soybean Digest has compiled a list of top hybrids from top companies. Use it as a starting point for selecting hybrids for next year. Be sure to also consider university, independent and company trial data when making your decisions....More

As the fall wheat planting season approaches, Herb Ohm, a Purdue research agronomist, says growers can increase their chances for a successful winter wheat crop by properly preparing seed beds and selecting high-quality seed....More

Bunge North America, a major buyer and exporter of grain and oilseeds, recently announced a purchasing policy in which it will not accept Agrisure Viptera – MIR162 biotech corn variety developed by Syngenta. The rationale behind this decision is the regulatory approval status of the product in the global marketplace – specifically, China....More

Syngenta in North America has filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa against Bunge North America for having violated a number of federal and state laws. Syngenta alleges Bunge is attempting to block the legal merchandising of the Agrisure Viptera trait, which was launched in compliance with all U.S. regulatory requirements as well as industry guidelines for commercialization....More

Chinese orders for U.S. corn increased this year and recently began to include the 2011 crop. China has not previously represented a substantial portion of the U.S. corn export market. The Chinese regulatory system has not approved the Agrisure Viptera trait (Event MIR162). This situation has caused concern among some grain traders....More

A study by Celeres indicates that 82.7% of the area for soybeans, 64.9% of the area for corn and 39.7% of the area for cotton will be using GM seeds; the central-western region is now leading in the size of the area planted with GM soybeans....More

It’s not a question as to whether John Lindamood plants treated corn and soybean seed. That’s a given. It just gets down to which fungicide and insecticide products are most cost effective to his northwest Tennessee operation....More

After all the rain and cold weather during the end of May, the forecast calls for us to turn a corner and finally get some warm temperatures moving into June. The increase in temperature will certainly be welcomed to help dry soils out and get planters back in the field, but this rapid warm-up may cause some issues for crops already in the ground....More

It's inevitable when corn and soybean acreages remain unplanted on June 1 to hear the question, "When is it too late to plant?" Although prevented-planting insurance changes things, there's no "drop-dead" date for planting, says University of Illinois Extension Agronomist Emerson Nafziger....More

Excessive rainfall this spring, following an unusually wet winter, has resulted in extensive flooding in many regions of North Dakota. Even soils that are not visibly flooded quickly become saturated after a rain because there is little evapotranspiration occurring as a result of the low temperatures and lack of an established crop....More

As of Sunday May 22, corn was 11% planted in Ohio, which was 76% behind last year and 69% behind the five-year average (http://www.nass.usda.gov/). Given the saturated soil conditions of many Ohio fields and the potential for more rain this week, it’s likely much of the crop acreage will be planted in June. Ohio State University Extension has developed a decision aid, Estimated Yield and Profit by Planting Date – Corn, Soybeans or Preventative Planting Crop Insurance, to assist producers in exploring the option of late-planted corn, switching to soybeans or accept preventative-plant payments....More

Soybean planting lags this week as many growers finish planting corn throughout the Illinois, says Emerson Nafziger, University of Illinois Extension agronomist. But good progress is expected in many areas this week....More

Conducting fieldwork after wet weather can cause soil compaction, and in particular sidewall compaction in the seed furrow, says DeAnn Presley, Kansas State University Research and Extension soil management specialist. This is especially true if the weather then turns dry after planting, she adds....More

As the use of biotechnology increases and more companies move forward with the U.S. EPA’s approval to begin full-scale commercialization of seed mixtures in transgenic insecticidal corn, many researchers believe pest monitoring will become even more difficult....More

Soggy, cool conditions have kept farmers out of the field, and the optimal planting dates for soybeans, April 25 in southern Iowa and May 1 for the northern half of the state, have come and gone. The average rainfall in the state of Iowa for April 2011 was 5 in. – about 1.36 in. above normal. In April 2008, the second wettest April recorded, the precipitation totaled 5.88 in. – 2.55 in. above normal....More

Even though planting has been delayed around the Upper Midwest, it's important to not rush and mud-in soybeans when planting this spring, says David Wright, Iowa Soybean Association director of contract research and strategic initiatives. He explains why there's no reason to rush when planting soybeans....More

As farmers take advantage of the extra time from a long spell of rain to tune-up planting equipment, one Purdue Extension soybean specialist says growers need to pay attention to seeding rates – especially with the cold, wet weather in the Midwest....More

As of Sunday April 24, only 1% of Ohio’s corn crop was planted, which is 38% behind last year and 13% behind the five-year average. Weather forecasts indicate more rain this week possibly continuing through Thursday. As prospects for a timely start to spring planting diminish, growers need to reassess their planting strategies and consider adjustments. Since delayed planting reduces the yield potential of corn, the foremost attention should be given to management practices that will expedite crop establishment. The following are some suggestions and guidelines to consider in dealing with a late planting season....More

South Dakota State University (SDSU) has released soybean germplasm lines to help plant breeders elsewhere incorporate desirable qualities such as high protein and low-linolenic acid into their own soybean varieties....More

Bags of corn seed that mix biotech hybrids with and without Bt toxins that kill insects provide farmers easier compliance with federal regulations but could, over time, hasten insect resistance to Bt, says Christian Krupke, a Purdue University entomologist....More

Representatives from across the U.S. wheat value chain met last week in Chicago for the fourth Wheat Summit. The meeting was planned primarily by National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) and hosted by NAWG, U.S. Wheat Associates (USW), the North American Millers’ Association (NAMA) and the American Bakers Association (ABA)....More

Jozef Kokini's description of the ways nanotechnology can be utilized in food science and agriculture is reminiscent of the 1966 science fiction film Fantastic Voyage in which a specially designed nuclear submarine and a team of researchers are miniaturized and injected into a patient's bloodstream. But Kokini is talking about real science, not fiction....More

One of these weeks it will actually warm up and we will get to plant the 2011 crop! If you start getting anxious and want to put soybeans into cold soil, you may want to rethink this option. A very nice study was just published by Iowa State Researcher Leonor Leandro, which compared inoculations of soybean seed with the sudden death syndrome pathogen, Fusarium virguliforme. Seeds that were inoculated at the day of planting developed symptoms at all of the temperatures tested....More

When soybean rust first appeared in the U.S. in late 2004, many producers feared devastating yield losses similar to losses experienced in other parts of the world. In response to this threat, researchers have been evaluating USDA soybean germplasm accessions for resistance to this fungus, and a recent report in Crop Science identifies some of these resistant sources....More